Apparatus and method for treating moving yarns with a liquid

ABSTRACT

The specification discloses an apparatus and method of treating textiles yarns with a liquid, in which the yarn is passed around a portion of the periphery of the disc. The lower perphery of the disc dips into a trough, the width of which is only slightly greater than the axial length, and the liquid flow through the trough in the same direction as the lower periphery of the disc. A very uniform coating of the perphery is thus achieved.

Oct. 19, 1971 G. P. GRAHAM 3,613,407

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING MOVING YARNS WITH A LIQUID Filed March 18, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A ttorneyfl Oct. 19, 1971 G. P.'GRAHAM 3,513,407

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING MOVING YARNS WITH A LIQUID Filed March 18, 1969 2 Shoots-Shoot 2 I nve nlor /l GfOfl-Ff P G QAWJM Attorneys United States Patent APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING MOVING YARNS WITH A LIQUID Geofirey P. Graham, Grenoble, France, assignor to Societe Rhodiaceta, Paris, France Filed Mar. 18, 1969, Ser. No. 808,100

Claims priority, application France, Mar. 18, 1968, 144,242

Int. Cl. D06f 35/00 U.S. Cl. 68202 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for treating moving yarns with a liquid.

In the following text yarn is to be understood as any filamentous material which is in the form of continuous filaments or of spun yarns of discontinuous fibres, by themselves or arranged in webs of narrow width.

It is usual in the textile industry to have to treat yarns or assemblies of yarns with a lubricant, an antistatic agent, a sizing agent or any other finishing agent in order to make the fibrous material capable of being worked subsequently. A conventional apparatus for lubricating or sizing moving filamentous materials comprises a rotating disc which picks up by capillary action the treatment liquid contained in a trough, and deposits it on the yarn by rubbing. Such a device, though used industrially, suffers from the disadvantage of not depositing the liquid on the yarn with sufficient uniformity. In studying this phenomenon it is found that even if the liquid feed is regular, not all the liquid circulates throughout the trough and there is a main stream and there are zones outside this stream in which the liquid stagnates. Since the liquid most frequently contains oils, the liquid located in the stagnation Zones remains in prolonged contact with air, oxidises and hardens to form skins which become detached from time to time and become attached to the yarn, resulting in abrupt variations in tension during the subsequent handling of the yarn.

In order to avoid these variations in tension causing the yarn to break it is necessary, when using known troughs, to clean them frequently and thus to stop the production especially for this purpose, thereby reducing the profitability of the manufacturing process.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for treating moving yarns with a liquid, such apparatus comprising a circular disc rotatable about its axis, means for rotting the disc in a given direction, a trough located below the disc, with the lower portion of the periphery of the disc within said trough, the width of said trough being only slightly greater than te axial length of the disc to provide a scall clearance therebetween, an inlet to the trough and an outlet disposed downstream of the inlet in the direction of movement of the lower portion of the periphery of the disc within the trough, and means to feed liquid to the inlet of the trough.

The invention further provides a method of treating a moving yarn with a liquid, said method comprising the steps of rotating a circular disc about its axis with the lowermost periphery in a trough, the width of which is only slightly greater than the axial length of the disc;

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causing liquid to flow in said trough substantially in the same direction and parallel to the lowermost periphery of the disc; adjusting the flow rate of the liquid in the trough to avoid the presence of local currents, and, guiding the yarn around a portion of the periphery of the disc which is external of said trough.

The liquids which can be used with the apparatus and method according to the invention may be in various forms such as oils or glues, by themselves or dissolved in an appropriate solvent or dispersed in water. The viscosity of these liquids is preferably chosen to be rather low, generally of the same order as that of water, when dealing with emulsions or aqueous dispersions, and of the order of about ten centistokcs for oily products alone.

The rate of flow of the liquid may vary, thus depending on the amount which one wishes to apply to the yarn. Flow rates of between 0.5 and 1.5 litres/minute are suitable.

The peripheral speed of the disc is, in a known manner, distinctly greater than that of the flow of liquid in the trough. This speed has to be increased if one wishes to increase the amount of liquid on the yarn substantially. In order to increase or reduce the amount of liquid to lesser extents, one merely respectively reduces or increases the rate of flow of the liquid.

The treatment disc must be simultaneously in contact with the liquid in which it is partly immersed and with the yarn which is to be treated. The position of the yarn relative to the disc is adjusted by means of gudes upstream and downstream of the treatment device. This position is preferably so adjusted that the yarn is at a tangent to the disc, or describes a small encircled are on the latter.

The speed of passage of the yarn over the disc may assume various values, from some tens up to several thousands of metres per minute.

In order that the invention may more readily be understood, the following description is given, merely by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 schematically represent a longitudinal section and top plan view respectively of one embodiment of trough used in the apparatus according to the invention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are similar views of a second embodiment of trough; and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of one form of apparatus employing a trough similar to that illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 or FIGS. 3 and 4.

Referring first to FIG. 5 of the drawings, there is illustrated a trough 1, and provided with a liquid inlet 2 and liquid outlet 3. Below the outlet is a reservoir 10 from which liquid is drawn by a metering pump 11 and fed to the inlet. A suitable connection 12 may be provided to control the speed of the pump as a function of the speed of rotation of a disc 5, the lower periphery of which dips into the trough, the disc rotating in the direction of the yarn. Yarn 8 is guided by yarn guides 9, so as to touch and pass around a small arc of the periphery of the disc.

The form of trough 1 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 is such that the inlet 2 and an outlet 3 both extend over the entire width of the trough 1 and define a central liquid uptake zone 4. Liquid is fed to the inlet 2 via a feed pipe 20.

Above the bottom of the trough is arranged the vertical disc 5, the thickness of which is very slightly less than the width of the trough, with a play which just alloys the disc to move without rubbing against the sides of the trough. The distance between the bottom of the disc and the bottom of the trough is of the order of a few millimetres. The disc is connected by a shaft to an appropriate device for rotating it, which is not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Immediately downstream of the lowermost portion of the periphery of the disc in the direction of flow of the liquid and of rotation of the disc, the trough bottom has 3 a radial portion 6, which rises progressively towards an overfiow 7.

The trough illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, comprises the same components designated by the same reference numerals and furthermore shows an improvement in the means for regularising the flow of the liquid, which consists of a widening of the sides of the trough adjacent and downstream of the lowermost portion of the periphery of the disc. A further purpose of this widening is that if several separate and essentially parallel yarns are treated simultaneously, one avoids depositing too small an amount of liquid on the external yarns.

Using a device such as that described above on a spinning frame, the length of the life of the lubricant is considerably increased, thereby correspondingly reducing the frequency with which the troughs are cleaned. Thus, the number of spinning stoppages is reduced and the profitability of the spinning process is improved.

The following example is given merely by way of illustration.

A trough such as that represented in FIGS. 3 and 4 was used, in which the disc had a thickness of 50 mm. and the trough a width of 55 mm. from the inlet up to the vertical projection of the axis of the disc on to the trough. The peripheral speed of the disc was 4.25 metres/minute; the trough was fed at the rate of 1 litre/minute with an aqueous emulsion containing by weight of a mixture of a mineral oil and a non-ionic emulsifier. The aver age speed of flow of lubricant in the trough was 2.10 metres/minute. 20 monofilament yarns, each of deniers gauge, made of hexamethylene diamine polyadipate was treated with this device, the speed of travel of the yarns being 460 metres/minute. The amount of lubricant deposited is 0.7% by weight relative to the yarn. The device functioned non-stop for 45 days. This compares with using, under the same conditions as above but using a conventional device which in particular comprised a feed and an outlet located at either end of one of the diagonals of the trough, a trough of the same width as above, and

a disc of mm. thickness, it was necessary to stop the process after 7 days and to clean the device.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for treating moving yarn with a liquid, said apparatus comprising, in combination:

(a) a circular disc rotatable about its axis and having an axial length;

(b) a periphery to said disc;

(c) means for rotating said disc about its axis in a given direction;

(d) a trough located below said disc, with the lower portion of the periphery of the disc within said trough, the width of said trough being only slightly greater than the axial length of the disc to provide a small clearance therebetween;

(e) an inlet to said trough;

(f) an outlet to said trough said outlet being disposed downstream of said inlet in the direction of movement of said lower portion of the periphery of said disc within said trough; and

(g) means to feed liquid to the inlet of said trough.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said trough is formed with a bottom, and wherein said bottom is formed with a raised portion downstream of the lowermost portion of said periphery of said disc.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein said raised portion terminates in an overflow adjacent said outlet.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said trough is widened adjacent and downstream of the lowermost portion of said periphery of said disc.

5. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the inlet and the outlet of the trough extend over the entire width of the trough.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,106,311 1/1938 Whitehead 8151.2

2,918,393 12/1959 Wommack et al 1l8259 3,337,931 8/1967 Claiborne 28-76 FOREIGN PATENTS 763,471 12/1956 Great Britain 68202 EDWARD C. ALLEN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 8l51.2l 

